The BJP on Monday released its second list for the Jharkhand assembly polls, declaring Gamliyel Hembrom its nominee from Barhait seat against Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Hembrom had contested from Barhait in the 2019 assembly elections on an AJSU Party ticket and polled 2,573 votes that came at the fourth position.
BJP also declared the candidacy of Vikash Mahto from Tundi seat. Hemant Soren is the sitting MLA of the Barhait (ST) constituency in Sahibganj district. He had won the seat, considered a JMM bastion, by a margin of 25,740 votes over his nearest rival Simon Malto of the BJP in 2019.
Soren won both Dumka and Barhait in the December 2019 assembly elections and chose to retain the latter. The BJP released the first list of 66 candidates for the assembly polls on October 19.
The party will contest the 68 out of 81 assembly seats, which will leave the remaining assembly seats to be contested by other allies.
The JMM has announced candidates for 43 of the 81 assembly seats. The party has won 30 out of the 43 assembly constituencies it had contested during the 2019 election and has secured the second position in five constituencies. Elections to the 81-member House will be conducted in two phases on November 13 and 20. Counting is on November 23.
The INDIA bloc partners will contest the upcoming assembly polls together with the Congress and JMM competing for 70 of the 81 seats and the remaining 11 with the RJD and Left parties.
The opposition camp will have the BJP contesting 68 seats, the AJSU Party 10, the JD(U) two, and the LJP (Ram Vilas) one.
In 2019, the JMM-led alliance had won 47 seats, wresting power from the BJP. The saffron party had managed to win 25 seats, JVM-P three, AJSU Party two, and the CPI (ML) and NCP one each, besides two Independents emerging victorious.
Altogether 2.60 crore electors, with 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD), third gender and senior citizens above 85 years of age, will get the opportunity to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections.
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